Striking Fast
by LocutusTNG
Summary: Kiera Cameron has escaped from a prison created by the FreeLancers. Upon her escape she is accompanied by AU Kiera Cameron. Soon after her return she makes contact with Alec with the transport sphere that accessed the FreeLancers facility. She took the sphere with her when they escaped the facility. But there are some lingering questions where AU Kiera Cameron comes from...
1. Insights

With Alec's help I arranged a safe house for Kiera that is completely untraceable. She does not have the skills to combat the FreeLancers and I dare not put her in harm's way. I too have stayed off the grid for a few weeks to let the matters cool down with the FreeLancers. I need to be able to be on the offensive with them. They seem to have all the technological advantages. I have used Alec as my go between with the outside world. He has also between running scans and tests on the sphere in order to understand what it does and how it operates.

After I have done all the preparation that I can do from my end. I get Alec to reach out for me. I am not going to be able to do this on my own. A car pulls up to barn at the farmhouse and someone enters.

"Carlos, I am glad you came."

"Kiera, how are you here. I have not heard from you for over a year." and he comes over and hugs me like a friend that has been gone for long time. I hug him back, it has been too long even it has only been a few weeks away for me.

"I've missed you too. Where I have been is rather complicated to explain, but I have actually been out of reach for most of that time."

"Where could you be that you could not call or text or email me how you were doing?"

"I was actually captured by the FreeLancers. They imprisoned me in a facility for weeks under constant sleep deprivation and constant interrogations."

"How did you escape?"

"One day I found the door to my cell was not fully locked and I barely escaped by I used a transport sphere I found in a room in their facility. I was dropped out of the sky into a freezing lake. I was saved by someone whom was also trapped in this place. It took a few weeks but we eventually found a means of escape and that brings me here."

"You say this all took place in weeks but I have not heard from you in a year."

"Alec surmises that the place we were trapped in that time moves slower than here."

"So weeks there turns into months here."

"Exactly. We both escaped from that place, by escaping back into the FreeLancer's facility. Then using a lot of stealth and luck we got back here."

"We? Who else came back with you?"

"I would prefer to keep that under wraps for now. Alec and I are the only ones that know the location of that person and I want to protect them and the FreeLancers seem to operate with technology beyond even mine in 2077. So I need to keep as much information private with as few people knowing as possible."

"Then why did you reach out to me?"

"You and Alec are the only two that I have trusted my true background within this time. With that knowledge you are uniquely prepared to know what we are facing."

"What are you asking me to do Kiera?"

"I plan to take on the FreeLancers. They are more dangerous than Liber8. If I don't take the fight to them, they will sooner or later find me."

"What do you propose?"

"I plan to make an assault on the SadTech building."

"Why do you need to go there if you have the sphere in your possession?"

"That's where Alec can explain this better." as we go back to the computer terminal where Alec has been working. "Alex can you explain to Carlos why we need to be at SadTech."

Alec explains "It is somewhat complicated, but the short answer is that the sphere Kiera first came in contact with moved her back in time from 2077 to 2012. My tests indicate that this sphere does not move back or forth in time but rather through time."

"Through time, what exactly is that? Kiera traveling back in time was already tough enough to wrap my head around."

"Well that is where it becomes even more complicated, but the FreeLancers are accessing many versions of this same time and place. Kiera said that her suit was in a box labeled with thirteen on it, that implies that they are accessing a least thirteen versions of earth."

"Now that does seems far more unbelievable than Kiera traveling back in time."

"Not really. Kiera and Liber8 traveling back in time created the paradox. None of them belonged here. Once they travelled here, the same outcome will happen over and over again in 2077, but each time with a slightly different outcome. Simply put, time is fractured and the FreeLancers are able to access the alternate timelines that happened when Liber8 and Kiera came back in time."

"So why go to SadTech?"

"The FreeLancers seem to have facilities built in some of these realities and we need to use the device in the same place that we took it from to access these other facilities."

"So what do you need from me Kiera?"

"I know I am asking a lot from you, but I need you come with me on the assault."

"I have been on many police raids with you Kiera, I can certainly help again."

"Yes, but I plan to use the device and I need you to come along."

Carlos pauses for a moment to ponder the gravity of the request.


	2. Making Plans

After thinking for a few moments Carlos looks back up, "I'm certainly in. But we certainly need to discuss what plans you have."

"I would agree. This will not be easy. Maybe we should go have a seat over some coffee and talk some more." as take Carlos to a table nearby and get us both a cup of coffee.

"Tell me what you have in mind."

"Like I was saying the facility at SadTech is their beachhead into this earth. We need to take control of the building in order to take control of the location that they have been doing their crossovers."

"How do you propose to take over the building."

"That is where it is a little more complex. I need to get back in with the department."

"Do you have a plan. You did not exactly part on good terms when you left."

"My idea is that I have been undercover. I was infiltrating this group called the FreeLancers. They are considered to be serious terrorists. During my year under deep cover, I have seen and collected a lot of research that points towards this building be the point at which they are coordinating their attacks. My undercover position allowed me to confirm these facts."

"I guess none of it is lies. They are terrorists if they are kidnapping people without cause and giving no reason for their incarceration."

"But what we need to do is convince the department that we need to shut down their operation immediately."

"That should be easy enough. We will say that I was acting as your handler while you were undercover. I was unable to tell anyone in the department of your new assignment as it was possible that they were screening department communications. Just to reinforce that I can get the chief to meet us somewhere offsite."

"That sounds like an excellent idea. We need to get him on board and then this will work as a coordinated effort with more people involved."

"Once we take the facility, what would be doing or looking for?"

"They will have plenty of advanced technology onsite. It will be enough to substantiate my claims. For the police department it will be a major win taking down international terrorists. For me, it will give me control and access to the their facility. With Alec's help, I hope to access these other realities and hopefully shut down their operations."

"Won't they try to take back the facility?"

"That is a possibility, but I have a hunch that they will not engage a large police presence from this time. I believe what they may do is move their operations to a new location."

"But you said we needed this building to access their location."

"It is Alec's belief that a common point is used, but it can be moved. With their advanced technology, they will likely be able to move their hub to another common location. So I plan to engage the sphere on the day of the assault. I want to get to their other facility with the element of surprise."

"That may be hard to explain the chief, when we are suddenly both gone."

"It will be, but we will have to deal with that if we get back."

"Are you afraid we will not get back?"

"I will not lie, these people are very dangerous. And my technology has little effect on their soldiers."

"Then we need to go low tech. Standard police assault gear from my time should work just fine."

Yes, I believe that will likely work. I had believed that I had the technological advantage, but that is no longer the case."

"So guns, tasers, cuffs, and.."

"...police clubs. They certainly can't stop a hit from those."

"So why not bring a large group over?"

"If Alec is correct about the multiple timelines, then I'm afraid that the more that crossover will further disrupt time. However, I can't do this alone, and that is why I brought you into it."

"I'm hoping to be able to recruit some help when we get over to the other side."

"What kind of help is going to help us."

"The desperate kind."


	3. Planning Ahead

"Working with Liber8! You can't be serious. They have tried to kill you a few times and they're terrorists." as Carlos looks at Kiera perplexed.

"They are certainly not the ideal accomplices, but they are already part of the paradox having traveled back in time too."

"But do you honestly think you can trust them?"

"Once we get back here it is doubtful, but I believe it is in their best interests to help us over there. They will want to get out of imprisonment just as I wanted."

"You are putting a lot of faith in a group of people that have no alliance to you."

"I know I am, but I think we will be able to agree that we have a common enemy and that we need to work together. And when we cross over we are going to be on our own, so we are going to need all the help that we can recruit."

"I can agree that we certainly need more than just us to fight an unknown number of foes."

"First I need to figure out where they are. They were in the same room as me initially, but people were constantly being moved out and some did not return. They are hopefully still in the building, if they were moved to another earth as I was then it may be difficult to find them."

"It is still difficult to believe that there are alternate versions of earth. Does that mean there are alternative versions of myself?"

I hesitate to answer the question, since I brought Kiera back here with me. "It may be possible, but there weren't many people at the place I was located."

"Does the person you have hidden have anything to do with these alternative earths?"

Carlos is always the detective and is already accessing the situation. "Yes, she is from an alternative earth." and before I can catch my error, I have already spoken.

"She? It must be an alternative version of you or someone from Liber8?"

"What makes you think of that" He is better than I ever assumed, but I have been out of the loop for a year over here.

"I makes sense that if the FreeLancers went after you and Liber8, then maybe they are trying to control or gather up the people and their doppelgangers that may have caused these alternative realities to form."

"You may be on to something. The few people I saw were doppelgangers of those in Liber8."

"Then you brought back someone from Liber8?"

I don't want to lie to Carlos, so I am left to say, "No, it is another version of myself. But she does not have the same background as me. She has police or fighting background, which is why I didn't bring her in on this mission."

Alec comes over to where we have been talking and has a seat.

"Alec can you explain to Carlos what preparations we have been making for the assault."

"Based what Kiera explained from her previous encounters and what information her suit recorded, I have been working on upgrades. One major issue was that the FreeLancers were able to see Kiera even though her suit was making her invisible to human sight."

"How were they able to see me?"

"It is likely that they're able to see the infrared spectra. Kiera's suit was only bending visible light around her which made her invisible to the naked eye. However, I have programmed the suit to bend a wider spectra of light that may work if our hypothesis is correct."

"That would be very helpful"

"Based on the data recorded by the suit, I have also upgraded how it interfaces with computer systems. Your ability will still be limited as there software is not going to be the same, all programming in theory starts from a binary language which is where all computer program originates, so I am using that as a way into their systems. However, since we can't communicate with each other. I had to program the suit to interpret the code and Kiera will have to access it there and decide what information is useful to the mission."

"But Alec has actually been working on something rather exciting."

"Yes, it is a personal EMP pulse that suit can emit. The problem has been to program the pulse to not shut down the suit too."

"The bugs are hopefully figured out before we go. But we don't want to rely on my suit as our solution, so that is where you come into help Carlos. We need to gather up an array of weapons from this time to take with us."

Carlos gets up from the table and says "Well then, we need to make preparations and get that meeting set up with the chief."

"Thanks Alec, Carlos and I will be out for a while, but I will be back later to check on the progress with the suit upgrades."

"Great Kiera, I need to get back to my work," as he heads back to his lab.


	4. Final Preparations

Carlos has set up a meeting with Inspector Dillon to discuss the details of our planned raid on the FreeLancers facility. We meet at location away from the police station to keep the matter internalized.

"Kiera, It has been a long time." as Inspector Dillon comes in with Carlos and gives me a firm hug. "I was quite worried about where you had gone, but Carlos explained your under cover assignment to me.

"Yes, it was a complicated assignment. But my intel is solid and I know the threat is real."

"What is this threat that we are going to take down?"

"They call themselves FreeLancers. I let myself be taken captive in order to evaluate the threat. They used highly aggressive interrogation techniques. However, they did not get any useful information from me. After a period of time I was able to escape my incarceration."

"After your disappearance, all of the Liber8 activities throughout the city suddenly went away."

"That is because Liber8 people were also incarcerated in the same place that I was being held. "

"So what are these FreeLancers interested in that Liber8 and you may know?"

"I'm not certain but I do intend to find out." I have a very good idea what the FreeLancers are doing but I don't want to show what I know to Dillion just yet, so I am just going leave the time traveler part out. "They look to be gathering up terrorists, but to what end I have yet to figure that out. What I have been planning for is a raid on their headquarters."

"Where are these headquarters located ?"

"In the building housing SadTech that we had a raid at over a year ago."

"Yes, that was the same time you went missing."

"That was the incident where I was captured. I just recently escaped and contacted Carlos to start to set up an Op to take down the facility."

"But I should have been brought in immediately on an Op of this size."

"Normally, I would have brought this straight to you, but there was evidence that they were monitoring police communications that I saw while in their facility and I did not want to compromise the plans. That is why I set up the meeting away from the police station."

"I understand your position but I would have preferred to have been advised sooner"

Carlos interjects "I can vouch for Kiera, we have monitoring the movements of the FreeLancer s and they have continued to sweep up anybody associated with Liber8."

"Which is not exactly a bad thing"

"Expect that they are not law enforcement nor have they approached law enforcement to aid them in their activities" as I add to the dialogue.

"And we are the law here not them, and from what Kiera has described in great detail they are using torture in order to gather intel. That is certainly not what we do." Carlos adds.

"From the reports that you two have put together, it seems to be rather clear cut that we need to set up a raid on their facilities immediately."

"I have set-up a secondary investigation with the FBI and Carlos and myself maybe going directly undercover during the op."

"How will that be working?"

"The FreeLancers organization is fractured. It is not centrally located in our city. Some may escape and we will want to track them and we will need to be mobile and quick."

"Will you set-up a means to keep us updated?"

"My previous experience tells me that outside communication inside their facilities is not really possible."

"Then you are going off the grid again, and with one of my officers."

"Yes, and I really need a partner to work with me on this op."

"I can't really say no, this activity sounds and reads to be illegal all around, so Carlos is on board with you and you will hopefully get back safely to us."

After the inspector leaves I talk a little more with Carlos.

"Dillion looks to be on board with our plan."

"Yes, I hate to not have him completely in the loop, but the truth of the FreeLancers is just too much to be made public. They need to be stopped to preserve my future and inevitably the present"

"We need to get our own supplies together for our little secret mission."

"Yes, we do. We have done all the planning that we can from this end. Now we need to execute the plan and see if we planned for all the potential problems that we will face on the other side."


	5. Leading the Assault

"Damn it, they knew we were coming"

"Kiera! Get Down!" Carlos yells back at me as gunfire whizzes past us. "How did they know we were coming?"

"Someone must have tipped them off. Someone is working with the FreeLancers against us."

"There is no turning back now." and Carlos radios in the counter-offense to draw off the attack.

An explosion can be heard and then felt that was just detonated from the opposite side of the building. The gun fire subsides and several of the people are seem to be running away. Our plan seems to have worked and we have split their people between two fronts. What they don't know is that only this front actually wants to breach the building.

"There seems to be only a few men left firing at us from this side of the building."

"I take care of that" and Carlos pulls out a shoulder firing launcher that we brought with stun grenades.

"Carlos, let me take this one." as I use my enhanced abilities to see the remaining heat signatures.

"By all means, if you want too." and it take the launcher and fire a grenade in the direction of one FreeLancer. The grenade goes off and he jumps up and staggers away.

"Carlos, help me reload this" and he pulls out another grenade and resets the launcher. I fire again and stun a second target. The last heat signature realizes he is alone and retreats back into the building. We grab our bags of gear and head towards the building. We ready our weapons for any resistance that we may face when enter the building.

As we make our way across the street the sound of gunfire can be heard in the distance. Our distraction seems to have worked as we had planned it out. They would have expected the police to enter through the front door with a warrant possibly, but there gunfire at us was evidence that they had no plans to cooperate. So we set up a secret plan that set up a secondary offensive from the opposite side; however, that was designed to look and feel like the primary offensive.

We make our way into the building through the front doors, it looks like the last person who ran inside is hiding behind the reception counter. Carlos pulls out a flash grenade and tosses it behind the counter and the person tries to jump away, but it is too late for him and he falls over in shock. I pull out a zip-tie and secure him to the chair. It looks like he was the last person defending the lobby.

"Carlos, let's get up to the control room"

"You can take the lead and show me the way." and we head to the stairway and make our way up the stairs.

"What floor were we going to Kiera"

"The tenth floor is where the lab was located to control the sphere."

"Do you anticipate resistance when we get to the floor."

"I do now after the response we had outside." When we reach the door to the floor we are exiting too, I ready two stun grenades, I crack open the door to see what the situation looks like. "There are half a dozen people in the hallway."

"Let's stun them and get them secured and move on." and Carlos pulls out two stun grenades and pulls the pins and then tosses them out into the hallway and quickly closes the door."

There are two bangs and we quickly move into the hallway and make quick work of the stunned agents. There is no wasted time till we move down the long hallway to the single door at the end. We are ready for a fight within. We burst into the room with guns drawn, but it is empty. All of the FreeLancers must be trying to defend the building and they left the room undefended.

"They must not be defending the room as they had no sphere, but they did not count on me bringing my own." as I pull the sphere I took when I escaped a few weeks earlier. The system is powered down. We need to get the power up and running to activate the sphere."

"What should we be looking for?"

"I assume some type of master switch for power"

"Over here Kiera. This looks like what we want." and Carlos flips several switches on a box. There is the hum of transformers loading up.

"That looks like it." as I study the main computer monitor. "There is what looks like a power meter and it is climbing."

"How long is that going to take."

"I'm not sure but we are at 20% and climbing"

"Then I should secure the door. Reinforcements may be here sooner than that is ready." and soon there is sound of those reinforcements coming up the hall. "How much longer Kiera?"

"Just past fifty percent."

"I think I may need you over here now."

"It has an electronic lock, so this will slow them down." and Kiera pulls out her weapon and sends out a shot that disables the lock. "That should delay them a little longer. Get all stuff by that stand in the middle of the room."

"Is there a plan to get out of here? You didn't quite explain how we traveled."

"I'm not quite certain how the technology works myself. But in a few more seconds we are moving."

There are people banging on the door, they can't get past the disabled electronic lock. One of them say to bring the explosives.

"Kiera, were out of time they're going to take down the door."

"It's charged and we're leaving." as I run towards Carlos the explosives are detonated and the large metallic door is ripped from the frame. I take the sphere that I have kept ready in my hand and slam is down on the stand. Time seems to slow down from the adrenaline coursing through my body. The door has flown upwards and is coming towards us. The sphere as soon as it made contact with the stand was activated and we moved from our world to another place. A place that I am all too familiar with the FreeLancers facility where I was being held captive. The door must have been passing over our heads as the sphere was active in the other room as there is a loud clang as circular piece of the door smashes into the far wall.

But there is no time to rest as there is a technician at the computer station. He is just as shocked by the metal hitting the wall. Carlos rushes the tech and takes him to the ground. He is getting the picture that these people are not are friends and are not going to help us.


	6. Breaking Down Walls

**To anyone that has been reading along, sorry about the delay in continuing this and my other ongoing story. I have had some personal family problems that have prevented my stories to come to life. I hope to get back to more regular updates. And if you have been reading my stories, I appreciate it and thank you for waiting. :)**

Carlos secures the arms of the tech behind his back and sits him on the floor and binds his legs too.

"Where are you keeping the prisoners in the building."

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

"And I would say that you are lying. One more time nicely, where are the prisoners." and the tech says nothing, so I pull out my gun and have it programmed to shock him but not knock him out. After a two second shock I let off and then I ask again. "Do you want to tell me where they are now?"

"I have no idea."

"Well, my gun has higher settings too, so I will see if you really don't know." and hold up my gun and set it higher and I bring it down to his arm again.

"I may have an idea."

"Let's hear it then."

"They have a prisoner two floors down. They have had her there for a few weeks. "

"You had better not be lying or we will be back and we will get the right answer out of you." and I shock him in the neck which knock him out. Carlos secures the techs arms behind his back and binds his legs and we drag his body back to a corner and hide him behind some panels. We seem to attracted some more attention as we here footsteps rushing down the hall. I wave Carlos to go behind the door and I go to the left and engage the stealth technology of my suit to become invisible to the oncoming people. I have my gun set to stun. The door swings open. I let the first person rush past me. As the second person files through the door and in one sweeping motion, I fire a shot at the neck of the first person, and drive my knee into the gut of the second, and yell out to Carlos "Now!"

He steps out and knocks the first person to the ground and finishes off the second person. There is a person lingering in the hallway who is pulling up some sort of communication device. I shoot a shot at his hands which causes him to drop the device. I rush him, but he seems to move out of my way, but he did not see Carlos following up behind and puts him in a choke hold till he collapses to the ground. I grab the first body by the arms and drag it back to the unconscious tech and bind him the same way. In the mean time Carlos has dragged the other two bodies back and we get them all tied up and grab our bags and get moving down the hall to the stairs.

After we make our way down two flights of stairs I tell Carlos "Wait here while I do a quick recon. If you here my gun, then come out, but let's try stealth."

"I trust your lead Kiera, but be careful they may already know we are here."

I head out the door, the hallway is empty. I head down the hallway, there are only a few doors on this floor. I see one door is ajar and head towards it. The is a man standing at a console and across the room is looks like someone is strapped to a chair but they are facing away from the doorway. The tech must not have the same ability as the agents and does not see me. I walk quietly behind the man and grab hold of a rod and the man in the back of the knees which of course is a shock to him as he does not know what just happened and I wrestle him into a chokehold to subdue him. Once he is out cold I get up and go over to the chair. I am surprised to find Garza strapped to the chair. She looks lucid yet she has obviously been interrogated for some time. I touch a command on my arm and my cloak comes down and Garza can see me. I hold a finger up to my lips to indicate that she needs keep quiet. I lean to her and tell her that "We are no longer on our earth and we need to move quickly and quietly."

"Ok Protector, I'll listen to you for now."

"I would expect no less from you" and I release her bindings. I extend my hand to help her up and she takes it. She hasn't had any ally in quite some time. I pull her up and we quickly move across the room to the doorway. I look into the hallway and it is still empty. We hurry down the hallway and the elevator door dings and opens. Two agents step out of the elevator likely on their way to interrogate Garza. Garza obviously has no plans to go back as she jumps at the nearest agent. "Carlos, now!" as I attack the other.

Carlos comes from the staircase and hits the man Garza is wrestling with the butt of his gun. He falls to the ground. The lone man is quickly subdued by the three of us. We drag the two unconscious men into the stair well. I seems like we have been found as it sounds like there are people rushing up and down the stairs. "Garza get to the elevator"

We rush out of the staircase and into the elevator which is still on our floor, "Garza, we need to go down eight floors" I yell to her.

"Where are we going Protector?"

"Out of here and hopefully to find your Liber8 friends." as the doors slide shut and the elevator starts to descend.

"How do you know where they are?"

"I don't but they are likely not here any longer."

"Then where are we going?"

"I not sure at the moment, but I have a hunch." as the doors open Carlos pulls the pins from a pair of shock grenades and tosses them out the door and we let the doors slide shut as the grenades go off. I push the button to open the doors and we rush out with weapons drawn and find there were only two guards on the floor. "Let's move they won't take too long to figure out where we went."

We rush down the hallway to the single door at the end. We enter and the room is unmanned. They seemed to have affected repairs since when Kiera and I arrived here and escaped back to my time and home in 2012. "Carlos, set up some defense, it will take a moment to charge this up."

"Garza give me a hand" as he grabs a desk and shoves it out into the hallway. "Let's get those boxes too"

"I have a better idea" as Garza eyes the grocery shelves in the room. "Carlos, do you have a knife."

"Not one that you can stab me in the back with."

"If we don't have much time, you need to trust me, my ass is on the line too. I have no wish to go back upstairs." and Carlos relents and slides a knife across the floor to her. She comes back with a arm full of bottles and uses the knife to cut off the tops in one motion and tosses them out on the floor.

"Nice plan Garza." as Carlos takes a few from Garza and flings them further down the hallway.

"Go bring that gas cylinder out here."

Carlos rolls the cylinder to the doorway, "What are we going to do with this?"

"Shove the base up against the center of the desk. We will need something heavy to hit it with."

But as Garza finishes her sentence men come falling out of the stairwell at the other end of the hallway. Carlos pulls a shock grenade from the bag on the floor and tosses it down the hallway. With little though one of the FreeLancer agents kicks the grenade towards one of the unconscious guards. The affect of the grenade is slightly muffled, so the agents are stunned briefly and try rushing but quickly hit the oil and to their amazement go flailing to the ground.

"That was a bit of genius there."

"I have had a little practice making chaos in the past."

"I'll forget about that for now. Kiera, we're running out time here."

"A few more seconds, I believe."

The agents are crawling their way towards us. As they are almost upon us Garza runs into the room and comes back with a pipe. "Out of the way" and Carlos falls back into the room and Garza hits the valve on the gas cylinder and it does not give. Carlos steps up and puts his hand on the pipe.

"I have this" and shoves her back and applies two hard blows and falls back as the cylinder pushes forward on the desk as it has been turned into a rocket. The cylinder and the desk push forward and the agents are hit by the desk and knocked on their backs.

"We're ready, but I am not certain where to go. There are choices one to twenty-four."

"Go to eight. I have a feeling" says Garza.

"Eight it will be. There is a five second delay, get between the grocery shelves now." and all three of us run for the grocery shelves and the device activates and we out of the reach of the FreeLancer agents.

But where have we gone. As my eyes adjust I hear the cocking of guns from many directions.


End file.
